So, color me surprised. I don’t know what I was expecting from this book, but there’s a level of underlying complexity in it that fascinates me. Also, re-reading those first couple chapters gave me some more information than I got initially – partially because there was little-to-no editing done on this book at all, and punctuation is all over the place and sometimes whole words are very obviously missing. But still, there’s a lot there (that I sadly have to hunt for). To wit:

• The distinction between “real” Black women and Blue Honeys. It’s mentioned that there is a distinction, rather, but there’s no indication thus far what it actually means. We know that Mayflower is Black and Jornaldo Mighty Acclamator is Blue, but the latter is just from the summary on the back so far.
• Mayflower didn’t just grab Druggie Janice and shove her in the robot closet. After she hit the “WASH” button, she grabbed the other guy – druggie girl’s husband – and shoved him in the closet and hit the button again.
• On that note, it doesn’t specify what the sterilization process is, but it apparently involves water that is hot enough to scald lava. Physical impossibilities aside, that’s a really damned painful way to go.

All in all, I came into this expecting Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep but with additional strangely-written sex and also vampires. What I’m getting is something else entirely. Join me as I figure out what!

I skipped ahead a bit on the end of the last post. I apologise for that; the pacing in these chapters is extremely erratic. From the two-chapter-long sex scene to the three paragraphs devoted to the fight afterwards, it took a couple re-reads to get the timeline straight. So here’s my best shot at the last chapter:

1. Sex being finished, the druggie married couple start moving in on Mayflower. Mark is having none of this, and punches out the guy.
2. Druggie Wife attacks Mark. This involves a sharp pain to his side.
3. Mayflower pulls Druggie Wife off Mark, knocks her out, stuffs her in the closet and sterilizes her.
4. Druggie Husband grabs the knife which apparently has been there the whole time (it hasn’t) (although that would explain the sharp pain in Mark’s side and the “creamy liquid” running down to the floor) (blood is creamy in the future I guess); Mayflower disarms him and shoves him in the closet and hits sterilize again.

Sealing the box by throwing her body against it, she hit WASH once more, and Mr. Dosten’s muffled screams faded as the hiss of water so hot it could scald lava cleansed the box and its contents.

Apparently, she did know what would happen. Impressive.

Taking yet another step back, CREAMY LIQUID WHAT. I was reading this originally and thought “wow, must have been some really athletic sex going on for stuff to be running down his side”, because I am jaded now after years of being friends with raunchy women. Then a few paragraphs later we find out NO THAT IS NOT IT, he has been STABBED, and now he’s bleeding out on the carpet.

Mayflower, the pragmatist, grabs Mark’s clothes and puts them on herself, then tells him that he’s going to help her get Dime back. Mark, of course, considers her to be A: an assassin who was trying to kill him, and also B: under his thrall now, so he stands there, bleeding out, while they calmly discuss the issue of getting past the Druggie Couple’s bodyguard.

And then a woman – Hannah – bounds in and enfolds Mark in a flying tackle hug that simultaneously makes Mayflower insanely jealous and tears open Mark’s wound further.

The solution to this? Mayflower steals an ambulance (because of course), and drives Hannah and Mark to a friend of hers in the Black underground who can stitch Mark up.

Said friend is a drug-addled creep who demands sexual favors in return for treating Mark’s wound. The favors end up happening in the room with Mark watching, causing him to react with immense jealous and…other ways.

“Lie down, Chilly,” Mayflower said, turning away from Mark and giving the doctor a shove.

He slid down the wall, flattening himself out when he reached the floor and shimmying onto his back. Mayflower stripped, offering full views of her luscious curves, and Mark’s shaft lengthened three inches.

NO. NO. IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. WHAT.

I hate to say it, but I find that I miss agricultural euphemisms. This book doesn’t dance around the subject, it gets right to the dirty.

Honestly, I think I should just start yada-yadaing the sex, unless something important happens during.

Anyway, yada-yada the doctor is a drug-addled reject who can’t get it up without a detox pill, yada-yada she’s faking it but that just makes Mark want her all the more.

(Seriously, I’m at a loss how to handle this without glossing it over completely.)

Mayflower faking it with the doctor somehow gives Mark the strength to rage past both an anaesthetic and leather restraints, and he chases Mayflower down the hallway and pins her down, because if anyone’s going to be taking advantage of her, it’s going to be him, goddamnit.

In the conversation before the totally-not-rape-at-all, we get a little bit of strangely-placed insight, through Mayflower’s internal monologue, about the nature of the sort of caste system that the future world has. Apparently, the Black society are the undergrounders, the destitute and deranged and not the noble Blue caste (because of Blue blood maybe, I am speculating). We know this much because Chilly (who shall be referred hereafter as Doctor Skeevoid) had a failed operation on the wrong person and now he’s hiding out in the Black districts while his family, still Blues, are safe. Blue Honeys, on that nature, are Blues that pander to the sexual cravings of the Black society. High-class escorts, maybe? Mark is described as Blue Honey, and so is Hannah.

All this, of course, is during a prolonged domination/submission scenario, with Mark holding her down and her having orchestrated the whole thing because she wanted him again. Which, very true to that age-old adage that the Submissive is actually the one in control. (Look it up if you don’t believe me.)

After the internal monologue and Mark demanding that she say his name properly, they yada-yada until the chapter ends.